Thanks for the input! but are you sure? What about charged strike? venom? poison charms? appears not to work with it. Gonna need more testing. If these do work with dtgm, the build is only strengthed as I have assumed worse case that its just physical melee. And even still, physical dr% is capped at 50% while res is 75% minimum (much more effective. This build effectively raises melee DR% (and zerk DR% lol) to approx 70%.

You still want to protect your life as much as possible and having 0 or negative res will drastically increase the damage taken (a 22k fireball comes to mind which would destroy both ES and life in one hit without res) and most elemental attacks are ranged.



You lose so for a 3k pvp dmg hit and 70% ES you would lose 900 LIFE, 1575 mana is drained. With the proper amount of dtgm% (approx 100-125% with warmth factored in) your mana is REPLACED.
SO: (approx umbers for sake of argument)
assume 2.7k hp, 1.5k mana sorc
3K hit #1: 1800 life, 1.5k mana
3K hit #2: 900 life, 1.5k mana
3k hit #3 0 life, 1.5k mana

Usually heavy DR% gear is high str and requires more dex than whistans. (also provides DR% without a shield like vs smite)
And if you thinking 20 points in TK is a waste, the typical ES/FB build or even vita FB build has nearly 20 extra skills towards lvl 99 that usually get wasted in warmth or hydra lol

Glad to see so much interest! People just need to try it, and if you want here is an easy way. Buy a nightsmoke, use nigma and aldurs. thats 75%. go full vita, 20tk, 1 point ES. Keep the rest of your gear the same (youll have to make up 20fcr but whatever) and see if you feel more survival vs melee than full vita alone. (even if you already have 50% dr this would increase your effective DR% to about 60%) Worst case you lose 15fg (in fact I will pay 20fg for anyone who does legit testing (until my fg runs out) since I really can't at this point)

Thanks, you hit it exactly right.

It has been tested briefly by myself but only with 80% dtgm on a bear sorc. (nightsmoke, aldurs, and angelics (20% dtgm from rings/ammy :)) Basically I just wanted to get 50% physical DR and still have be able to use dual dreams. Anyway, open offer of 20fg for any useful, legit TESTING information.

Tested long time, you can trust me.

Some info here btw :

http://wiki.theamazonbasin.com/index.php/D2_Damage_Taken_Goes_to_Mana

see also the link in the first Note.

Good luck with this funny sorc !

A lot of really cool information about gear and stuff but im almost positive this is not true: "Applies to final damage of any attack, missile or skill which applies player or hireling attack damage, or monster source damage (damage calculated using MonStats values), and applies to all damage types applied to life as a result (physical, magic, fire, lightning, cold, and first frame of poison damage). [1]"

I KNOW it doesn't work with guided arrow, fireball, etc. I mean it says "any skill that applies player attack damage" which sounds exactly like guided arrow. I don't know about pvm and I dont really care. Still think testing needs to be done.

DTGM does work with guided arrow.
I just tested it in SP.
And of course it doesnt work with fireball - as said in the AmazonBasin, because fireball doesnt apply player attack damage - but skill damage.

This post was edited by feanur on Mar 16 2011 03:08pm

Great news! Now there is really no reason not to use dtgm and low es over regular %DR (except against windys I guess) Good catch and thanks for testing.

You're welcome ^^ thx for donation !

Does this mean that if you get hit for 1.5k mana damage from ES your ES would break if you have 1499 mana, even though you have over 100% dgtm to compensate?

If you have 1500 mana and take say 1575 damage to your energy shield (equivalent to 3k pvp dmg hit with 70% es) your ES WILL break and you will lose 900 + 75 life. With the right amount of dtgm (approx 125% for to break even) your mana will be completely restored, however your ES will still be "off".

This means that the actual size of your mana pool is not too important except for keeping up ES all the time. Since you dont need to prebuff a high lvl ES, you can just recast it.

Again, this is with a gg 18k hit. Against a bowa with lets say a 12k crit, you would only need to have a max mana pool of 1050 to ensure that ES never breaks (and no damage above the original 30% rolls over into life)

nice guide, what would you consider a good enough fhr bp for this build against melee?